Consciousness, Rationality, Identity, and the Human Condition

Consciousness, rationality, identity and the human condition

The course will take as its starting point some key philosophical questions: How does consciousness relate to the world, and what is the connection between intentionality and phenomenal consciousness. Next, the question of the relationship between object consciousness and self-consciousness will be discussed. Is self-consciousness a fundamental feature of our experiential life or rather an exception. Is consciousness always linked to a self or do anonymous or ownerless experiences also exist? A further question about the self pertains to personal identity. What is the nature of personal identity over time, i.e., how do persons persist over time despite the physical and psychological changes they undergo along the way? And what is the prudential and moral significance of personal identity? In the course, these questions will be addressed on the basis of central texts in contemporary theoretical and practical philosophy as well as more historical texts in classical phenomenology.